An Afghan woman has been strangled to death, apparently by her husband, who was upset that she gave birth to a second daughter rather than the son he wanted, police said Monday.

It was the latest in a series of grisly examples of subjugation of women that have made headlines in Afghanistan in the past few months — including a 15-year-old tortured and forced into prostitution by in-laws and a female rape victim who was imprisoned for adultery.

The episodes have raised the question of what will happen to the push for women's rights in Afghanistan as the international presence here shrinks along with the military drawdown. NATO forces are scheduled to pull out by the end of 2014.

In the 10 years since the ouster of the Taliban, great strides have been made for women in Afghanistan, with many attending school, working in offices and even sometimes marching in protests. But abuse and repression of women are still common, particularly in rural areas where women are still unlikely to set foot outside of the house without a burqa robe that covers them from head to toe.

The man in the latest case, Sher Mohammad, fled the Khanabad district in Kunduz province last week, about the time a neighbor found his 22-year-old wife dead in their house, said District Police Chief Sufi Habibullah. Medical examiners whom police brought to check the body said she had been strangled, Habibullah said.

The woman, named Estorai, had warned family members that her husband had repeatedly reproached her for giving birth to a daughter rather than a son and had threatened to kill her if it happened again, said Provincial women's affairs chief Nadira Ghya, who traveled to Khanabad to deal with the case. Estorai gave birth to her second daughter between two and three months ago, Ghya said. Officials did not have a family name for either Sher Mohammad or Estorai.

Police took the man's mother into custody because she appears to have collaborated in a plot to kill her daughter-in-law, Habibullah said. Ghya, who visited the man's mother in jail, said that she swears that Estorai committed suicide by hanging. Police said they found no rope and no evidence of hanging from the woman's wounds.

Boy babies are traditionally prized much more highly than girls in Afghanistan, where a son means a breadwinner and a daughter is seen as a drain on the family until she is married off. Even so, a murder over the gender of a baby would be rare and shocking if proved true.

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement Monday praising the Afghan government for recent declarations supporting women's rights in the wake of the latest abuse cases that have garnered media attention.

"The rights of women cannot be relegated to the margins of international affairs, as this issue is at the core of our national security and the security of people everywhere," the statement said. It did not address the killing of the young woman in Kunduz.

bear in mind that this sort of events happens all the time in more "civilized" countries... and for equally stupid reasons.i am of the opinion that this is due to male insecurity, even though their culture is pretty absurd when it comes to genders...

to think that a few thousands of years ago Afghanistan was the cultural center of the humanity...

bear in mind that this sort of events happens all the time in more "civilized" countries... and for equally stupid reasons.i am of the opinion that this is due to male insecurity, even though their culture is pretty absurd when it comes to genders...

to think that a few thousands of years ago Afghanistan was the cultural center of the humanity...

A verdict has been reached in a murder case that's gotten a lot of attention because it involved so-called honor killings of family members by family members. in this case an afghan family living in canada . it is a culture clash getting a lot of attention to our north. NBS's Kevin Tibbles has the story...

A verdict has been reached in a murder case that's gotten a lot of attention because it involved so-called honor killings of family members by family members. in this case an afghan family living in canada . it is a culture clash getting a lot of attention to our north. NBS's Kevin Tibbles has the story...

Guess they don't realize the man's sperm plays a part in determining the sex of a child.

Actually the mans sperm IS the deciding factorYou have male and female producing sperm.

At conception, gender is determined by chromosome characteristics - and it will be the male (or rather the male's sperm) that dictates whether the baby will be a boy or a girl.Prior to conception, the unfertilized egg carries an X chromosome while the sperm can carry either an X or a Y chromosome. The gender of the baby comes down to one simple event:

•If the sperm carrying an X chromosome fertilizes the egg, a girl will be conceived.

•If the sperm carrying a Y chromosome fertilizes the egg, a boy will be conceived.

Actually the mans sperm IS the deciding factorYou have male and female producing sperm.

At conception, gender is determined by chromosome characteristics - and it will be the male (or rather the male's sperm) that dictates whether the baby will be a boy or a girl.Prior to conception, the unfertilized egg carries an X chromosome while the sperm can carry either an X or a Y chromosome. The gender of the baby comes down to one simple event:

•If the sperm carrying an X chromosome fertilizes the egg, a girl will be conceived.

•If the sperm carrying a Y chromosome fertilizes the egg, a boy will be conceived.

Yes but they're adding all sorts of other factors to this such as the level of acidity or temp in the woman's vagina......seems like I read something about how the Y chrom is weaker and if the acid (or whatever it was) is too high the likelihood of an X chrom sperm will successfully fertilize. Who knows.. they change their positions occasionally.

Yes but they're adding all sorts of other factors to this such as the level of acidity or temp in the woman's vagina......seems like I read something about how the Y chrom is weaker and if the acid (or whatever it was) is too high the likelihood of an X chrom sperm will successfully fertilize. Who knows.. they change their positions occasionally.

The acidity and all that just helps decide which sperm wins the raceMale sperm is faster but dies quickerFemale sperm is slower but stays alive much longer